From Today's Oregonian

[XERXES]

Cheeks supports 'change'

While the Blazers are mum on trade talks, their coach suggests a player move might be beneficial

01/15/04

JASON QUICK

TUALATIN -- The Trail Blazers' top brass on Wednesday continued to insist that a trade is not imminent, even as speculation mounts that a deal with Dallas involving Rasheed Wallace is in the works.


"There is nothing to report," general manager John Nash said Wednesday. "The day we make a trade, we will call a press conference to announce it."

Coach Maurice Cheeks, who says he is included in trade talks, said there have been more trade conversations lately than at any other time in his two-plus seasons in Portland, but he added that he didn't foresee anything on the horizon.

Cheeks did, however, imply that a trade could help his struggling team.

"Sometimes, I think you can be in a situation like we are in now where I think you get a little stagnant and maybe something changes it up," Cheeks said. "Maybe it's a trade. Maybe that would change it up."

Sources in the Blazers, including Cheeks, said that trade conversations have escalated in the past week. No specifics were revealed, but there have been rumblings that a possible deal is in the works that would send Wallace and his $17 million salary to the Mavericks for forward Antawn Jamison ($11 million), guard Tony Delk (about $3 million) and forward Eduardo Najera (slightly less than $3 million).

Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said this week that he would not make a trade with the Blazers unless it was a "sweetheart" of a deal, and it appears the most pressing issue in Dallas is the future of coach Don Nelson, who reportedly has a frigid relationship with Cuban.

At any rate, the Blazers continue to be at the center of national trade speculation, almost all of it centered on Wallace, who has missed the past three games with an ankle sprain.

The New York Knicks, who fired coach Don Chaney and hired Lenny Wilkens on Wednesday, could be the Blazers' partners in a deal for Wallace.

"If they put him back out there, we'd be interested," Knicks president Isiah Thomas told The Associated Press.

Wallace did not practice Wednesday and is not expected to play tonight against Phoenix at the Rose Garden. Blazers officials have insisted that Wallace is indeed injured, and that he is not being held out of games because a trade is pending, a point that guard Jeff McInnis reiterated Wednesday.

"People say he isn't playing because he is involved in a trade, but I know he is hurt," McInnis said. "I have seen it. I'm his friend, and I have seen the ankle. He is hurt."

The Blazers (16-20) have lost six of their past seven games, dropping them to 12th in the Western Conference, ahead of Golden State and Phoenix, and the trade speculation has seemed to accelerate an uneasiness among the players.

"When you are losing, people pay more attention to the trade talk, because you start to think that there could be a mix-up, or there should be a mix-up," McInnis said. "It's hard to play when so much is going on. Every day someone asks about a trade."

The NBA trading deadline is Feb. 19, and Nash said that it is only natural that trade talks are heightening. In the meantime, Cheeks said his players will have to get used to playing amid the speculation.

"Trade talk is a part of sports, it's part of NBA basketball," Cheeks said. "It's just something that we have to deal with. It's always up to the team to make that decision whether you are traded or not traded, but players have to hear it and they have to endure it. It's part of their job."

Wallace on Wednesday declined to comment, and his teammates said it has been hard to tell if the trade talks are affecting him. However, Wallace is hearing the talk, because Ruben Patterson said he and Wallace joked about the speculation involving Wallace.

"If they are going to make a trade, they are going to make a trade, and that's the way everyone feels," Patterson said. "But Rasheed is a big piece of our team. I know the people and the fans of Portland love Rasheed because he is a great player. And we love him, too. Hopefully, he will stay." Without Walker's lame triple-double

Note:

The Blazers on Wednesday did not renew the 10-day contract of 7-foot-5 center Slavko Vranes. "We liked him, we liked him a lot," Nash said. "We think he could be a prospect, but we don't feel he is ready to make an immediate impact." Nash said the team has not ruled out signing Vranes later. Vranes appeared in one game, playing three minutes against Minnesota.

Jason Quick: 503-221-4372; jasonquick@news.oregonian.com